


with my childhood's faith

by cynical_optimist



Series: let me count the ways (lolifem) [2]
Category: Lovely Little Losers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Alternate Universe - Teachers, F/F, Fluff, literally pure fluff and snark, the students ship it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-23
Updated: 2016-02-23
Packaged: 2018-05-22 17:28:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6088276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cynical_optimist/pseuds/cynical_optimist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I’m going to Hogsmeade to get some things for a lesson,” Rosa says. “I just wanted to see if you would accompany me?”<br/>There is a part of Jaquie that wants to ask her, teasing, <i>is this a date, Rosa?</i> She doesn’t; her stupid thing she’s had over Rosa ever since they were students can throw itself into the sun, honestly. “Sure,” she says, instead.</p><p>-</p><p>day two: hogwarts</p>
            </blockquote>





	with my childhood's faith

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote over a thousand words of fluff. I'm so proud. All the thanks to [Sarah](http://douchenuts.tumblr.com) and [Crystal](http://niuniujiaojiao.tumblr.com/) for betaing.
> 
> Title from "How Do I Love Thee?" by Elizabeth Browning.

Jaquie is first clued in to the other teacher’s presence by the giggling of her students.

“This is silent working time,” she reminds them, not looking up from the lesson plan she was probably supposed to have finished yesterday.

The giggles quiet for a moment, then,

“Professor Manders?”

Jaquie sighs. “Yes, Mr McClure?”

The Gryffindor clears his throat. “I think you have a guest, Professor.”

Jaquie sigh agains, looks up. “Professor Jones,” she greets.

The Slytherin teacher—though she often rants about sorting and the systematic conditioning of children to act a certain way, “ _ Do you know Hogwarts is the only school to do it, out of all the schools in the world? Isn’t that messed up, Jaq? _ ”—grins, a little wickedly. “I’m just here to check up on my brother.”

Jaquie makes a show of looking around the room. “You seem to have walked into the wrong class, then. This is the Gryffindor-Ravenclaw potions lesson. No Hufflepuffs to be found.”

Benedick Hobbes, Ravenclaw prefect, snickers.

Rosa glares at the offending student, then sighs. “Well, I suppose I’ll just have to check up on you, instead. You never know what dangers these dungeons hold. I don’t, and I spent years here.”

“The lesson ends in ten minutes, Professor Jones.” Jaquie gives the other teacher a very convincing glare. “I think I can take care of myself until then.”

Rosa shrugs. “Your funeral,  _ Professor Manders _ .” She makes to move, and Jaquie bites her lip to contain her giggle. That would be terribly unprofessional of her.

“ _ Ten minutes _ ,” she stresses. “Can you keep from distracting my students for that long?”

Rosa shrugs. “I can try.”

Jaquie turns her attention to her students; every single one of them is watching the conversation with rapt eyes and bright grins. “Back to work before I hex you all!” she orders, and their heads snap down. “You have less than ten minutes to finish those essays.”

Rosa’s eyes meet hers across the room, wise and daring, and Jaquie’s cheeks warm. She looks back at her plan.

Once the ten minutes are up, Jaquie gathers the essays. They are as she’d guessed—anything ranging from a few panicked paragraphs to Beatrice Duke’s rational, just a little over required length piece, to Benedick Hobbes’ rambling and barely relevant monstrosity of an essay.

“You’ll get your grades back by next week,” she says, as they begin gathering up their things. “Please make sure to look up the properties of hemlock in detail before the next lesson.”

The students file out, and then just Jaquie and Rosa are left.

“I’m going to Hogsmeade to get some things for a lesson,” Rosa says. “I just wanted to see if you would accompany me?”

There is a part of Jaquie that wants to ask her, teasing,  _ is this a date, Rosa? _ She doesn’t; her stupid  _ thing _ she’s had over Rosa ever since they were students can throw itself into the sun, honestly. “Sure,” she says, instead.

Rosa’s eyes widen. “Great,” she says, as if she didn’t quite expect that answer. Which is ridiculous, really, because she must know that Jaquie hasn’t been able to say no to her since they met. It’s a curse, maybe, a hex that fell on her that she never noticed or bothered to fix. Well, she might as well live with it.

“So, can we just head by my room to drop off my stuff?” Jaquie asks, gesturing toward her bag.

Rosa shrugs. “Sure, I’m in no rush.”

“And yet you barged into my class ten minutes before it was done to ask me to accompany you?”

Rosa doesn’t meet her eyes, and it looks, in the low light of the dungeon, that her pale cheeks might be tinted pink. “I was bored,” she says, voice deliberately light. “And I enjoy annoying you. You’re rather cute when you’re flustered.”

Jaquie loses her breath for half a second.

“Anyways,” Rosa continues, “I do hate going around Hogsmeade without company.”

“Right,” Jaquie says, finding her words again with the opportunity to snark. “Too different from those gorgeous Alps you visited last year, is it?”

Rosa shrugs, grinning. “And every other place.” Her grin fades, a little nostalgic. “There’s not that much that compares to them, you know?”

For some indiscernible reason, Jaquie feels an odd stab of disappointment. “Yeah, I guess not,” she replies, and they fall silent for half a beat.

“I mean,” continues Rosa. “The people are pretty great here.”

“Yeah?” Jaquie is smiling, she knows.

“Yeah.”

Once they reach the teacher’s dorms and Jaquie puts all her books on her bed, she grabs her scarf.

Rosa scoffs when she sees it. “You know the house system is completely arbitrary and actually rather toxic—”

“Go Gryffindor,” Jaquie smirks over the top of her, winding the scarf around her neck. The Slytherin glares. “Come on, Ros, it’s not like I have any other scarves lying around.”

Rosa’s raises an eyebrow. “You have, like, five. I gave you one for your birthday, for this very reason.”

“A technicality,” Jaquie calls as she leaves the room. “Besides, none of them showcase my deep and abiding house pride—”

“You cheered for Ravenclaw in the Slytherin-Gryffindor Quidditch match last month.”

“It was a bet.”

“I don’t remember you sitting at the Gryffindor table  _ once _ while we were in school.”

Jaquie’s heart kicks. “Aw, you noticed,” she sings instead.

“Come on, Jaq, when they told you that a Gryff couldn’t be potions master, you told them exactly where they could place their house stereotypes and flounced out of the room.”

“Go Gryffindor?” Jaquie suggests again, weakly.

Rosa giggles. Terribly unprofessional, terribly cute.

“So,” Jaquie asks, once they’re far enough out of Hogwarts grounds to apparate. “What do you even need from Hogsmeade? You teach muggle studies.”

“Sugar quills to bribe my students, mostly. Meet in front of Honeyduke’s?” She disappears with a loud  _ crack _ , no wand in sight.

Jaquie quickly apparates after her. “Where the hell did you learn wandless apparition?” she asks, once she’s on solid ground again.

“All sorts of places,” Rosa shrugs. “I can show you sometime, probably. Now, sugar quills?”

Jaquie can do nothing but follow.

It’s in and out of the store, the owner barely bothering to make small talk. Jaquie briefly considers buying something, but she’s already got a stash of candy in her trunk that takes up more room than it’s worth. She is sort of craving some sugar, though.

As if reading her mind, Rosa turns to her the moment they leave the store, offering her a sugar quill.

“They’re for your students,” she protests.

“I bought extra,” Rosa shrugs. “Are you telling me you’d turn down a sugar quill?”

Jaquie tries to glare at her and fails. “I would,” she says, stubborn.

Rosa sighs. “Well, that’s a waste of a sugar quill. I guess I’ll just have to eat it myself, even though it will  _ completely  _ put me off my dinner.”

“You realise it’s roast beef tonight?”

Rosa pouts at the sugar quill. “Yes, I know.”

“Fine,” Jaquie groans. She knows her lips are tipping up into a smile, and she either can’t or won’t stop them. “I’ll take the quill.”

Rosa smirks, triumphant.

“Okay, so where to next? You can’t have come this far just for some sugar quills.”

Rosa shrugs. “We could just take a stroll.”

“That sounds an awful lot like a--” Jaquie pauses, heart in her throat, gathers the courage that Gryffindors are supposedly so full of, “--a date,” 

“I mean,” Rosa replies. “I did just buy you candy at Honeydukes. That’s pretty date-like.”

“You realise the students are betting on us, right?”

Rosa grins. “Beatrice Duke will win the pot. I would have asked you out last week, but Hobbes had his money on then.”

Jaquie shakes her head. “You’re terrible.” She feels like her face will split with grinning. She feels like a giddy student.

“I know.” The Slytherin teacher holds out her hand invitingly. “Now, a stroll?”

Jaquie takes the proffered hand and leans into Rosa’s side. “Who even uses the word stroll anymore?”

“Me. And you, in that question.”

Jaquie hums noncommittally. “You know,” she says. “I think you’re pretty great, too.”

“Yeah?”

On impulse, Jaquie presses a kiss onto the corner of Rosa’s mouth, feels it curve into a smile. “Yeah.” 


End file.
